• 


Cato's 
Farm  Management 


Cato's 
Farm  Management 

Eclogues  from  the  De  Re  Rustica  of 

M.    Porcius    Cato,    done   into 

English,  with    notes    of   other 

excursions  in  the  pleasant 

paths  of  agronomic 

literature 

By 

A  Virginia  Farmer 


Obscurata  diu  poptdo  bonus  eruet  atque 
Proferei  in  Iticem  speciosa  vocabula  rerum 
Quae  priscis  memoraia  Caionibus  atque  Cethegis 
Nunc  situs  informis  premit  et  deserta  vetustas. 

HORATI  Epist.  II.  2,  IIS. 


Privately  Printed 
1910 


Add  to  tib, 

LANDSCAPE 

ARCHITc-CTiJRf 


Preface 

While  Cato  is  readily  accessible  in 
French  and  in  German,  the  only  re- 
corded English  translation,  that  of 
the  Rev.  Thos.  Owen  published  at 
London  in  1803,  is  at  once  inadequate 
and  scarce.  For  this  reason  the  pres- 
ent editor  has  ventured  to  translate 
from  the  Latin  (and  to  annotate  from 
the  works  of  other  ancient  agro- 
nomes)  those  portions  of  the  De  re 
rustica  which  are  of  enduring  inter- 
est.    While  this  was   done  for  the 

ntertainment  of  the  translator,  with 
in  echo  of  Horace's  prayer  (Sat. 
[I,  6,  14)  that  everything  on  his 
farm  might  grow  fat  except  his 
A^its,  it  is  now  submitted  in  the  hope 

hat  other  American  farmers  may 
:hus  be  afforded  the  pleasure  of  mak- 


^37 


Preface 

ing  the  acquaintance  of  the  rare  old 
Roman,  and  at  the  same  time  be 
stimulated  to  more  intensive  agri- 
cultural practice  by  realizing  how 
well  such  things  were  done  two 
thousand  years  ago. 

F.  H. 

Belvoir, 
Fauquier  County,  Virginia, 
December,  1910. 


I 


Contents 

PAGE 

Note  upon  Cato  and  the  Latin  Agronomes  9 

Of  the  Farmer   -         -         -         -          -  17 

Of  Buying  the  Farm   -          -         -         -  19 

Of  the  Duties  of  the  Owner         -         -  22 

Of  Laying  out  the  Farm       -         -          -  27 

Of  Stocking  the  Farm  -          -          -          -  32 

Of  the  Duties  of  the  Overseer        -         -  33 

Of  the  Duties  of  the  Housekeeper  -         -  37 

Of  the  Hands     -----  39 

Of  Draining        -          -          -          -          -  41 

Of  Preparing  the  Seed  Bed    -          -          -  42 

Of  Manure 44 

Of  Soil  Improvement  -          -          -          -  46 

Of  Planting 47 

Of  Forage  Crops          -         -         -         -  49 

Of  Pastures 50 

Of  Feeding  Live  Stock          -         -         -  52 

Of  the  Care  of  Live  Stock    -         -         -  55 

Of  Curing  Hams         -          -          -          -  58 


Note  Upon  Cato  and  the 
Latin  Agronomes 

The  ancient  literature  of  farm 
management  was  voluminous.  Varro 
cites  fifty  Greek  authors  on  the  sub- 
ject whose  works  he  knew,  beginning 
with  Hesiod  and  Xenophon.  Magon 
of  Carthage  wrote  a  treatise  in  the 
Punic  tongue  which  was  so  highly 
esteemed  that  the  Roman  Senate  or- 
dered it  translated  into  Latin,  but  it 
is  now  lost  to  us  except  in  the  literary 
tradition.  Varro,  the  polymath,  who 
was  styled  by  his  contemporary  Cic- 
ero the  most  learned  Roman,  wrote  a 
De  re  rustica  among  the  six  hundred 
and  twenty  books  in  which  he  ex- 
plored every  branch  of  human  activ- 
ity: he  was  indeed  so  prolific  and  so 
various  that  we  might  almost  indulge 
[9] 


Note 

of  him  the  philosophic  doubt,  which 
has  been  expressed  of  a  modern  Eng- 
lish litterateur,  that  he  was  not  a  man 
but  a  syndicate.  Varro's  essay  in  rural 
science,  which  takes  the  form  of  a 
pleasant  exchange  of  experience  be- 
tween a  company  of  Roman  country 
gentlemen,  acknowledges  its  obliga- 
tion to  Magon  and  the  Greeks,  as 
well  as  to  Cato  and  was  in  turn  the 
inspiration  of  Columella  who  wrote 
in  Spain  his  mellifluous  and  charm- 
ing book  during  the  reign  of  Tiber- 
ius. In  the  IV  Century  Palladius 
followed  with  another  De  re  rustica, 
which  was  diligently  read  during  the 
Dark  Ages,  and  was  undoubtedly 
suited  to  them,  for  it  is  very  dull. 
All  of  these  works  are  instructive, 
but,  like  the  Georgics  of  Virgil,  they 
are  the  productions  of  literary  men 
rather  than  practical  farmers  and  are 
more  profitable  in  the  library  than 
the  barnyard :  they  smell  more  of  the 

[10] 


I 


Note 

lamp  than  of  the  dunghill.  But  in 
the  T>e  re  rustica  of  Cato  we  have 
a  convincingly  practical  handbook. 

Marcus  Porcius  Cato  died  one 
hundred  and  forty-nine  years  before 
the  Christian  era.  He  is  usually 
called  the  Censor,  to  distinguish  him 
from  his  great  grandson  of  the  same 
name,  '^the  last  republican,"  who 
committed  suicide  at  Utica,  when 

'^cuncta  terrarum  subacid 
Praeter  atrocem  animum   Catonisf* 

The  elder  Cato  was  the  type  of 
Roman  produced  by  the  most  vigor- 
ous days  of  the  republic.  Born  at 
Tusculum  on  the  narrow  acres  which 
his  peasant  forefathers  had  tilled  in 
the  intervals  of  military  service,  he 
commenced  advocate  at  the  coun- 
try assizes,  followed  his  fortunes  to 
Rome  and  there  became  a  leader  of 
the  metropolitan  bar.  He  saw  gal- 
ant  military  service  in  Greece  and 
in  Spain,  commanded  an  army,  held 
[III 


Note    

all  the  curule  offices  of  state  and 
ended  a  contentious  life  in  the  Sen- 
ate denouncing  Carthage  and  the  de- 
generacy of  the  times. 

He  was  an  upstanding  man,  as 
coarse  as  he  was  vigorous  in  mind 
and  in  body,  much  the  type  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  but  without  Lincoln's 
gentleness  and  sympathy.  He  was 
strenuous  (he  too  used  the  word)  as 
Theodore  Roosevelt  in  his  tilts  at 
what  he  considered  evil,  and  he  made 
as  many  quotable  phrases  in  rough 
and  tumble  controversy  as  our  recent 
President.  Roman  literature  is  full 
of  anecdotes  about  him  and  his  wise 
and  witty  sayings. 

Unlike  many  men  who  have  de- 
voted a  toilsome  youth  to  agricul- 
tural labor,  when  he  attained  fame 
and  fortune  he  maintained  his  inter- 
est in  his  farm,  and  wrote  the  De  re 
rustica  in  his  green  old  age.  It  tells 
what  sort  of  a  farm  manager  he  him- 

[12] 


Note 

self  was,  and,  though  a  mere  collec- 
tion of  random  notes,  sets  forth  more 
shrewd  common  sense  and  agronomic 
experience  than  it  is  possible  to  pack 
into  the  same  number  of  English 
words.  It  was  the  first  book  on  the 
subject  which  was  written  in  Latin; 
indeed,  it  was  one  of  the  very  first 
books  written  in  that  vernacular  at 
all,  and  it  remains  today  of  much 
more  than  antiquarian  interest.  In 
fact,  we  are  just  beginning  to  learn 
again  the  value  of  some  of  the  things 
Cato  practised:  for  example,  he 
taught  intense  cultivation,  the  use  of 
leguminous  plants  for  soil  improve- 
ment, the  importance  of  live  stock 
in  a  system  of  general  farming,  and 
the  effective  preservation  of  manure. 
Barring  some  developments  of  bac- 
terial science  like  the  ingenious 
"nodular  hypothesis"  in  respect  to 
legumes,  the  student  of  farm  manage- 
ment today  could  not  go  far  wrong 
[13I 


Note 

if  he  founded  modern  instances  of 
agricultural  experience  upon  the 
wise  saws  of  this  sturdy  old  heathen. 
All  the  subsequent  Latin  writers 
on  farm  management  quoted  Cato 
with  respect,  even  when  they  differed 
from  him,  and  no  one  who  reads  him 
can  do  less  today. 


u 


Cato's 
Farm  Management 


Cato's 
Farm   Management 

THE  pursuits  of  commerce 
would  be  as  admirable  as  they 
are  profitable  if  they  were  not  sub- 
ject to  so  great  risks:  and  so,  like- 
wise, of  banking,  if  it  was  always 
honestly  conducted.  For  our  ances- 
tors considered,  and  so  ordained  in 
their  laws,  that,  while  the  thief 
should  be  cast  in  double  damages, 
the  usurer  should  make  four-fold 
restitution.  From  this  we  may  judge 
how  much  less  desirable  a  citizen 
they  esteemed  the  banker  than  the 
thief.  When  they  sought  to  com- 
mend an  honest  man,  they  termed 
him  good  husbandman,  good  farmer. 
This  they  rated  the  superlative  of 

[I7l. 


Cato*s     Farm     Management 

praise."  Personally,  I  think  highly 
of  a  man  actively  and  diligently 
engaged  in  commerce,  who  seeks 
thereby  to  make  his  fortune,  yet,  as 
I  have  said,  his  career  is  full  of 
risks  and  pitfalls.  But  it  is  from 
the  tillers  of  the  soil  that  spring  the 
best  citizens,  the  stanchest  soldiers; 
and  theirs  are  the  enduring  rewards 
which  are  most  grateful  and  least 
envied.  Such  as  devote  themselves 
to  that  pursuit  are  least  of  all  men 
given  to  evil  counsels. 

1  It  was  perhaps  this  encomium  upon  the  farmer 
at  the  expense  of  the  banker  which  inspired  Horace's 
friend  Alfius  to  withdraw  his  capital  from  his  bank- 
ing business  and  dream  a  delicious  idyl  of  a  simple 
carefree  country  life:  but,  it  will  be  recalled  (Epode 
II,  the  famous  "Beatus  tile  qui  procul  negotiis")  that 
Alfius,  like  many  a  modern  amateur  farmer,  re- 
cruited from  town,  soon  repented  that  he  had  ever 
listened  to  the  alluring  call  of  "back  to  the  land" 
and  after  a  few  weeks  of  disillusion  in  the  country, 
returned  to  town  and  sought  to  get  his  money  out 
again  at  usury. 

Columella  (I,  praef.)  is  not  content  with  Cato's 
contrast  of  the  virtue  of  the  farmer  with  the  iniquity 
of  the  banker,  but  he  brings  in  the  lawyer's  profes- 
sion for  animadversion  also.  This,  he  says,  the  an- 
cient Romans  used  to  term  a  canine  profession,  be- 
cause it  consisted  in  barking  at  the  rich. 

[18] 


I 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

And  now,  to  get  to  my  subject, 
these  observations  will  serve  as  pref- 
ace to  what  I  have  promised  to  dis- 
cuss. 

Of  Buying  the  Farm 
{ly  When  you  have  decided  to 
purchase  a  farm,  be  careful  not  to 
buy  rashly;  do  not  spare  your  visits 
and  be  not  content  with  a  single  tour 
of  inspection.  The  more  you  go,  the 
more  will  the  place  please  you,  if  it 
be  worth  your  attention.  Give  heed 
to  the  appearance  of  the  neighbor- 
hood,— a  flourishing  country  should 
show  its  prosperity.  "When  you  go 
in,  look  about,  so  that,  when  needs 
be,  you  can  find  your  way  out." 

Take  care  that  you  choose  a  good 
climate,  not  subject  to  destructive 
storms,  and  a  soil  that  is  naturally 
strong.       If     possible,    your    farm 

^The  Roman  numerals  at  the  beginning  of  the 
paragraphs  indicate  the  chapters  of  Cato  from  which 
they  are  translated. 

I19I 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

should  be  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain, 
looking  to  the  West,  in  a  healthy 
situation,  where  labor  and  cattle  can 
be  had,  well  watered,  near  a  good 
sized  town,  and  either  on  the  sea  or 
a  navigable  river,  or  else  on  a  good 
and  much  frequented  road.  Choose 
a  place  which  has  not  often  changed 
ownership,  one  which  is  sold  unwill- 
ingly, that  has  buildings  in  good  re- 
pair. 

Beware  that  you  do  not  rashly  con- 
temn the  experience  of  others.  It  is 
better  to  buy  from  a  man  who  has 
farmed  successfully  and  built  well.' 

1  This,  of  course,  means  buying  at  a  high  price, 
except  in  extraordinary  cases.  There  is  another  sys- 
tem of  agriculture  which  admits  of  the  pride  of  mak- 
ing two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  none  was  before, 
and  the  profit  which  comes  of  buying  cheap  and  sell- 
ing dear.  This  is  farming  for  improvement,  an  art 
which  was  well  described  two  hundred  years  before 
Cato.    Xenophon   {Oeconomicus  XX,  22)  says: 

"For  those  who  are  able  to  attend  to  their  affairs, 
however,  and  who  will  apply  themselves  to  agricul- 
ture earnestly,  my  father  both  practiced  himself  and 
taught  me  a  most  successful  method  of  making  prof- 
it for  he  would  never  allow  me  to  buy  ground  al- 
ready cultivated,  but  exhorted  me  to  purchase  such 

[20] 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

When  you  inspect  the  farm,  look 
to  see  how  many  wine  presses  and 
storage  vats  there  are;  where  there 
are  none  of  these  you  can  judge  what 
the  harvest  is.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  not  the  number  of  farming  imple- 
ments, but  what  is  done  with  them, 
that  counts.  Where  you  find  few 
tools,  it  is  not  an  expensive  farm  to 
operate.  Know  that  with  a  farm, 
as  with  a  man,  however  productive 
it  may  be,  if  it  has  the  spending  habit, 
not  much  will  be  left  over.^ 

as  from  want  of  care  or  want  of  means  in  those  who 
had  possessed  it,  was  left  untilled  and  unplanted. 
He  used  to  say  that  well  cultivated  land  cost  a 
great  sum  of  money  and  admitted  of  no  improve- 
ment, and  he  considered  that  land  which  is  unsuscep- 
tible of  improvement  did  not  give  the  same  pleasure 
to  the  owner  as  other  land,  but  he  thought  that 
whatever  a  person  had  or  bought  up  that  was  con- 
tinually growing  better  afforded  him  the  highest 
gratification." 

1  Every  rural  community  in  the  Eastern  part  of 
the  United  States  has  grown  familiar  with  the  con- 
trast between  the  intelligent  amateur,  who,  while 
endeavoring  earnestly  to  set  an  example  of  good 
agriculture,  fails  to  make  expenses  out  of  his  land, 
and  the  born  farmer  who  is  self-supporting  in  the 
practice  of  methods  contemned  by  the   agricultural 

[21] 


C  a  t  o  '  s     Farm     Management 

Of  the  Duties  of  the  Owner 
(ll)  When  you  have  arrived  at 
your  country  house  and  have  saluted 
your  household,  you  should  make  the 
rounds  of  the  farm  the  same  day,  if 
possible;  if  not,  then  certainly  the 
next  day.  When  you  have  observed 
how  the  field  work  has  progressed, 
what  things  have  been  done,  and 
what   remains   undone,   you   should 

colleges.  Too  often  the  conclusion  is  drawn  that 
scientific  agriculture  will  not  pay;  but  Cato  puts  his 
finger  on  the  true  reason.  The  man  who  does  not 
depend  on  his  land  for  his  living  too  often  permits 
his  farm  to  get  what  Cato  calls  the  "spending  habit." 
Pliny  (H.  N.  XVIII,  7)  makes  some  pertinent  obser- 
vations on  the  subject: 

"I  may  possibly  appear  guilty  of  some  degree  of 
rashness  in  making  mention  of  a  maxim  of  the  an- 
cients which  will  very  probably  be  looked  upon  as 
quite  incredible,  'that  nothing  is  so  disadvantageous 
as  to  cultivate  land  in  the  highest  style  of  perfec- 
tion.' " 

And  he  illustrates  by  the  example  of  a  Roman 
gentleman,  who,  like  Arthur  Young  in  XVIII  Cen- 
tury England,  wasted  a  large  fortune  in  an  attempt 
to  bring  his  lands  to  perfect  cultivation.  "To  culti- 
vate land  well  is  absolutely  necessary,"  Pliny  con- 
tinues, "but  to  cultivate  it  in  the  very  highest  style 
is  mere  extravagance,  unless,  indeed,  the  work  is 
done  by  the  hands  of  a  man's  own  family,  his 
tenants,  or  those  whom  he  is  obliged  to  keep  at  any 
rate." 

[22] 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

summon  your  overseer  the  next  day, 
and  should  call  for  a  report  of  what 
work  has  been  done  in  good  season 
and  why  it  has  not  been  possible  to 
complete  the  rest,  and  what  wine  and 
corn  and  other  crops  have  been  gath- 
ered. When  you  are  advised  on  these 
points  you  should  make  your  own 
calculation  of  the  time  necessary  for 
the  work,  if  there  does  not  appear  to 
you  to  have  been  enough  accom- 
plished. The  overseer  will  report  that 
he  himself  has  worked  diligently,  but 
that  some  slaves  have  been  sick  and 
others  truant,  the  weather  has  been 
bad,  and  that  it  has  been  necessary 
to  work  the  public  roads.  When  he 
has  given  these  and  many  other  ex- 
cuses, you  should  recall  to  his  atten- 
tion the  program  of  work  which  you 
had  laid  out  for  him  on  your  last 
visit  and  compare  it  with  the  results 
attained.  If  the  weather  has  been 
bad,  count  how  many  stormy  days 
[23] 


C  at  0*  s     Farm     Management 

there  have  been,  and  rehearse  what 
work  could  have  been  done  despite 
the  rain,  such  as  washing  and  pitch- 
ing the  wine  vats,  cleaning  out  the 
barns,  sorting  the  grain,  hauling  out 
and  composting  the  manure,  clean- 
ing seed,  mending  the  old  gear  and 
making  new,  mending  the  smocks  and 
hoods  furnished  for  the  hands.  On 
feast  days  the  old  ditches  should  be 
mended,  the  public  roads  worked, 
briers  cut  down,  the  garden  dug,  the 
meadow  cleaned,  the  hedges  trimmed 
and  the  clippings  collected  and 
burned,  the  fish  pond  cleaned  out. 
On  such  days,  furthermore,  the 
slaves'  rations  should  be  cut  down  as 
compared  with  what  is  allowed  when 
they  are  working  in  the  fields  in  fine 
weather. 

When  this  routine  has  been  dis- 
cussed quietly  and  with  good  humor 
and  is  thoroughly  understood  by  the 
overseer,  you  should  give  orders  for 
[24] 


Cato*s     Farm     Management 

the  completion  of  the  work  which 
has  been  neglected. 

The  accounts  of  money,  supplies 
and  provisions  should  then  be  con- 
sidered. The  overseer  should  report 
what  wine  and  oil  has  been  sold,  what 
price  he  got,  what  is  on  hand,  and 
what  remains  for  sale.  Security- 
should  be  taken  for  such  accounts  as 
ought  to  be  secured.  All  other  un- 
settled matters  should  be  agreed 
upon.  If  any  thing  is  needed  for  the 
coming  year,  it  should  be  bought; 
every  thing  which  is  not  needed 
should  be  sold.  Whatever  there  is 
for  lease  should  be  leased.  Orders 
should  be  given  (and  take  care  that 
they  are  in  writing)  for  all  work 
which  next  it  is  desired  to  have  done 
on  the  farm  or  let  to  contract.  You 
should  go  over  the  cattle  and  deter- 
mine what  is  to  be  sold.  You  should 
sell  the  oil,  if  you  can  get  your  price, 
the  surplus  wine  and  corn,  the  old 

[251 


Cato*s    Farm     Management 

cattle,  the  worn  out  oxen,  and  the  cull 
sheep,  the  wool  and  the  hides,  the  old 
and  sick  slaves,  and  if  any  thing  else 
is  superfluous  you  should  sell  that. 

The  appetite  of  the  good  farmer  is 
to  sell,  not  to  buy. 

(iv)  Be  a  good  neighbor.  Do 
not  roughly  give  offense  to  your  own 
people.  If  the  neighborhood  re- 
gards you  kindly,  you  will  find  a 
readier  market  for  what  you  have  to 
sell,  you  will  more  easily  get  your 
work  done,  either  on  the  place  or  by 
contract.  If  you  build,  your  neigh- 
bors will  aid  you  with  their  services, 
their  cattle  and  their  materials.  If 
any  misfortune  should  overtake  you 
(which  God  forbid!)  they  will  pro- 
tect you  with  kindly  interest.^ 

1  Hesiod  (W.  &  D.,  338)  had  already  given  this 
same  advice  to  the  Greek  farmer: 

"Invite  the  man  that  loves  thee  to  a  feast,  but  let 
alone  thine  enemy,  and  especially  invite  him  that 
dwelleth  near  thee,  for  if,  mark  you,  anything  un- 
toward shall  have  happened  at  home  neighbours  arc 
wont  to  come  ungirt,  but  kinsfolk  gird  themselves 
first." 

[26] 


C  at  o'  s     Farm     Management 

Of  Laying  Out  the  Farm 

(l)  If  you  ask  me  what  is  the  best 
disposition  to  make  of  your  estate, 
I  would  say  that  should  you  have 
bought  a  farm  of  one  hundred 
jugera  (about  66  acres)  all  told/ 
in  the  best  situation,  it  should  be 
planted  as  follows:  i°  a  vineyard,  if 
it  promises  a  good  yield,  2°  an  irri- 
gated garden,  3°  an  osier  bed,  4°  an 
olive  yard,  5°  a  meadow,  6°  a  corn 
field,  7°  a  wood  lot,  8°  a  cultivated 
orchard,  and  9°  a  mast  grove.^ 


^  This  was  an  estate  of  average  size,  probably 
within  Virgil's  precept,  (Georgic  II,  412.)  "Laudato 
ingentia  rura,  exiguum  colito."  Some  scholars  have 
deemed  this  phrase  a  quotation  from  Cato.  While 
it  smacks  of  his  style,  the  thought  is  found  in 
Hesiod  (W.  &  D.,  643),  "Commend  a  large  vessel: 
in  a  small  one  stow  thy  freight." 

2  The  philosophy  of  Cato's  plan  of  laying  out  a 
farm  is  found  in  the  agricultural  history  of  the 
Romans  down  to  the  time  of  the  Punic  wars. 
Mommsen  (II,  370)  gives  the  facts,  and  Ferrero  in 
his  first  chapter  makes  brilliant  use  of  them.  There 
is  sketched  the  old  peasant  aristocrat  living  on  his 
few  acres,  his  decay  and  the  creation  of  compara- 
tively large  estates  worked  by  slaves  in  charge  of 
overseers,  which  followed  the  conquest  of  the  Italian 

[27] 


C  at  o'  s     Farm     Management 

(III)  In  his  youth,  the  farmer 
ought,  diligently  to  plant  his  land, 
but  he  should  ponder  before  he 
builds.  Planting  does  not  require  re- 
flection, but  demands  action.  It  is 
time  enough  to  build  when  you  have 
reached  your  thirty-sixth  year,  if  you 
have  farmed  your  land  well  mean- 
while. When  you  do  build,  let  your 
buildings  be  proportioned  to  your 
estate,  and  your  estate  to  your  build- 


states  about  B.  C.  300.  This  was  the  civilization  in 
which  Cato  had  been  reared,  but  in  his  time  another 
important  change  was  taking  place.  The  Roman 
frontier  was  again  widened  by  the  conquest  of  the 
Mediterranean  basin:  the  acquisition  of  Sicily  and 
Sardinia  ended  breadstuff  farming  as  the  staple  on 
the  Italian  peninsular.  The  competition  of  the  broad 
and  fertile  acres  of  those  great  Islands  had  the  ef- 
fect in  Italy  which  the  cultivation  of  the  Dakota 
wheat  lands  had  upon  the  grain  farming  of  New 
York  and  Virginia.  About  150  B.  C.  the  vine  and 
the  olive  became  the  staples  of  Italy  and  corn  was 
susperseded.  Although  this  was  not  accomplished 
until  after  Cato's  death  he  foresaw  it,  and  recom- 
mended that  a  farm  be  laid  out  accordingly,  and  his 
scheme  of  putting  one's  reliance  upon  the  vine  and 
the  olive  was  doubtless  very  advanced  doctrine,  when 
it  first  found  expression.  As  to  Cato's  views  upon 
the  value  of  pasture  land  on  a  large  estate  (the 
latifundia)  see  post  p.  52. 

[28I 


Cato*s     Farm     Management 

ings.^  It  is  fitting  that  the  farm 
buildings  should  be  well  constructed, 
that  you  should  have  ample  oil  cel- 
lars and  wine  vats,  and  a  good  supply 
of  casks,  so  that  you  can  wait  for  high 
prices,  something  which  will  re- 
dound to  your  honour,  your  profit 
and  your  self-respect. 

(iv)  Build  your  dwelling  house 
in  accordance  with  your  means.  If 
you  build  well  in  a  good  situation 
and  on  a  good  property,  and  furnish 
the  house  suitably  for  country  life, 
you  will  come  there  more  often  and 
more  willingly.^  The  farm  will  then 
be   better,    fewer   mistakes   will   be 

1  Pliny  quotes  Cato  as  advising  to  buy  what  others 
have  built  rather  then  build  oneself,  and  thus,  as  he 
says,  enjoy  the  fruits  of  another's  folly.  The 
cacoethes  edificandi  is  a  familiar  disease  among 
country  gentlemen. 

2  Columella  (I,  4)  makes  the  acute  observation 
that  the  country  house  should  also  be  agreeable  to 
the  owner's  wife  if  he  wishes  to  get  the  full  measure 
of  enjoyment  out  of  it.  Magon,  the  Carthaginian, 
advised  "if  you  buy  a  farm,  sell  your  house  in  town, 
lest  you  be  tempted  to  prefer  the  cultivation  of  the 
urban  gods  to  those  of  the  country." 

[29I 


C  a  t  o  '  s     Farm     Management 

made,  and  you  will  get  larger  crops. 
The  face  of  the  master  is  good  for 
the  land.' 

(Vl)  Plant  elm  trees  along  the 
roads  and  fence  rows,  so  that  you  may 
have  the  leaves  to  feed  the  sheep  and 
cattle,  and  the  timber  will  be  avail- 
able if  you  need  it.  If  any  where 
there  are  banks  of  streams  or  wet 

1  According  to  German  scholarship  the  accepted 
text  of  Cato's  version  of  this  immemorial  epigram  is 
a  model  of  the  brevity  which  is  the  test  of  wit, 
Frons  occipitio  prior  est.  Pliny,  probably  quoting 
from  memory,  expands  it  to  Frons  domini  plus 
prodest  quam  occipitium.  Palladius  (I,  6)  gives 
another  version:  Praesentia  domini  provectus  est 
agri.  It  is  found  in  some  form  in  alniost  every 
book  on  agriculture  since  Cato:  in  La  Maison  Rusti- 
que  that  delightful  XVI  Century  thesaurus  of 
French  agricultural  lore,  in  the  innumerable  works 
of  Gervase  Markham  that  XVII  Century  L.  H. 
Bailey,  and  in  the  pleasant  XIX  Century  essays  of 
Donald  G.  Mitchell.  The  present  editor  saw  it 
recently  in  the  German  comic  paper  Fliegende 
Blatter.  But  the  jest  is  much  older  than  Cato.  In 
Xenophon's  Oeconomicus  (XII,  20)  it  appears  in 
another  form: 

"The  reply  attributed  to  the  barbarian,"  added 
Ischomachus,  "appears  to  me  to  be  exceedingly  to 
the  purpose,  for  when  the  King  of  Persia  having  met 
with  a  fine  horse  and  wishing  to  have  it  fattened 
as  soon  as  possible,  asked  one  of  those  who  were  con- 
sidered knowing  about  horses  what  would  fatten  a 
horse  soonest,  it  is  said  that  he  answered  'the  master's 
eye.' " 

[30I 


C  a  t  0  ^  s     Farm     Management 

places,  there  plant  reeds,  and  sur- 
round them  with  willows  that  the 
osiers  may  serve  to  tie  the  vines. 

(vil)  It  is  most  convenient  to 
set  out  the  land  nearest  the  house  as 
an  orchard,  whence  fire  wood  and 
faggots  may  be  sold  and  the  supply 
of  the  master  obtained.  In  this  en- 
closure should  be  planted  everything 
fitting  to  the  land  and  vines  should  be 
married  to  the  trees. ^ 

(vill)  Near  the  house  lay  out 
also  a  garden  with  garland  flowers 
and  vegetables  ^  of   all   kinds,    and 

1  The  English  word  "orchard"  scarcely  translates 
arbustum,  but  every  one  who  has  been  in  Italy  will 
recall  the  endless  procession  of  small  fields  of  maize 
and  rye  and  alfalfa  through  which  serried  ranks  of 
feathery  elm  trees,  linked  with  the  charming  drop 
and  garland  of  the  vines,  seem  to  dance  toward  one 
in  the  brilliant  sunlight,  like  so  many  Greek  maidens 
on  a  frieze.     These  are  arbusta. 

2  Cato  was  a  strong  advocate  of  the  cabbage ;  he 
called  it  the  best  of  the  vegetables  and  urged  that  it 
be  planted  in  every  garden  for  health  and  happiness. 
Horace  records  (Odes.  Ill,  2i,  ii)  that  old  Cato's 
virtue  was  frequently  warmed  with  wine,  and 
Cato  himself  explains  (CLVI)  how  this  could  be 
accomplished  without  loss  of  dignity,  for,  he  says,  if, 

[31] 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

set  it  about  with  myrtle  hedges,  both 
white  and  black,  as  well  as  Delphic 
and  Cyprian  laurel. 

Of  Stocking  the  Farm 
(x)  An  olive  farm  of  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  jugera  (i6o  acres) 
ought  to  be  stocked  as  follows:  an 
overseer,  a  house  keeper,  five  labor- 
ers, three  ox  drivers,  one  swineherd, 
one  ass  driver,  one  shepherd;  in  all 
thirteen  hands:  three  pair  of  oxen,^ 

after  you  have  dined  well,  you  will  eat  five  cabbage 
leaves  they  will  make  you  feel  as  if  you  had  had 
nothing  to  drink,  so  that  you  can  drink  as  much  more 
as  you  wish,  'bibesque  quantum  'voles!' 

1  Henry  Home,  Lord  Kames,  a  Scots  judge  of  the 
XVni  Century,  whom  Dr.  Johnson  considered  a  bet- 
ter farmer  than  judge  and  a  better  judge  than 
scholar,  but  who  had  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  our  priscus  Cato,  argues  in  his  ingenious 
Gentleman  Farmer  against  the  expense  of  plough- 
ing with  horses  and  urges  a  return  to  oxen. 
He  points  out  that  horses  involve  a  large  original 
investment,  are  worn  out  in  farm  work,  and  after 
their  prime  steadily  depreciate  in  value;  while,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  ox  can  be  fattened  for  market 
when  his  usefulness  as  a  draught  animal  is  over, 
and  then  sell  for  more  than  his  original  cost;  that 
he  is  less  subject  to  infirmities  than  the  horse;  can  be 
fed   per  tractive  unit  more  economically   and   give 

[32  1 


C  a  t  o  '  s     Farm     Management 

three  asses  with  pack  saddles,  to  haul 
out  the  manure,  one  other  ass,  and 
one  hundred  sheep.^ 

Of  the  Duties  of  the  Overseer  ^ 
(v)  These  are  the  duties  of  the 
overseer:  He  should  maintain  dis- 
cipline. He  should  observe  the  feast 
days.  He  should  respect  the  rights 
of  others  and  steadfastly  uphold  his 

more  valuable  manure.  These  are  strong  arguments 
where  the  cost  of  human  labor  is  small  and  econ- 
omical farm  management  does  not  require  that  the 
time  of  the  ploughman  shall  be  limited  if  the  unit 
cost  of  ploughing  is  to  be  reasonable.  The  ox  is 
slow,  but  in  slave  times  he  might  reasonably  have 
been  preferred  to  the  horse.  Today  Lord  Kames, 
(or  even  old  Hesiod,  who  urged  that  a  ploughman 
of  forty  year  and  a  yoke  of  eight  year  steers  be  em- 
ployed because  they  turned  a  more  deliberate  and  so 
a  better  furrow)  would  be  considering  the  economi- 
cal practicability  of  the  gasolene  motor  as  tractive 
power  for  a  gang  of  "crooked"  plows. 

^  There  were  in  addition,  of  course,  milch  goats, 
hogs,  pigeons  and  fowls.  Cato  adds  a  long  list  of 
implements  and  other  necessary  equipment.  Pliny 
quotes  Cato,  "whatever  can  be  done  by  the  help  of 
the  ass  costs  the  least  money." 

2  The  Roman  overseer  was  usually  a  superior,  and 
often  a  much  indulged,  slave.  Cf.  Horace's  letter 
(Epist.  I,  14)   to  his  overseer. 

[33] 


C  a  t  0  ^  s     Farm     Management 

own.  He  should  settle  all  quarrels 
among  the  hands;  if  any  one  is  at 
fault  he  should  administer  the  pun- 
ishment. He  should  take  care  that 
no  one  on  the  place  is  in  want,  or 
lacks  food  or  drink;  in  this  respect 
he  can  afford  to  be  generous,  for  he 
will  thus  more  easily  prevent  pick- 
ing and  stealing.^ 

Unless  the  overseer  is  of  evil  mind, 
he  will  himself  do  no  wrong,  but  if 
he  permits  wrong-doing  by  others, 
the  master  should  not  suffer  such  in- 
dulgence to  pass  with  impunity.  He 
should  show  appreciation  of  cour- 
tesy, to  encourage  others  to  practice 


1  This  was  the  traditional  wisdom  which  was 
preached  also  in  Virginia  in  slave  times.  In  his 
Arator  (1817)  Col.  John  Taylor  of  Caroline  says  of 
agricultural  slaves: 

"The  best  source  for  securing  their  happiness, 
their  honesty  and  their  usefulness  is  their  food.  * 
*  *  *  One  great  value  of  establishing  a  com- 
fortable diet  for  slaves  is  its  convenience  as  an  in- 
strument of  reward  and  punishment,  so  powerful  as 
almost  to  abolish  the  thefts  which  often  diminish 
considerably  the  owner's  ability  to  provide  for 
them." 

[34] 


C  a  t  0^  s     Farm     Management 

it.  He  should  not  be  given  to  gad- 
ding or  conviviality,  but  should  be 
always  sober.  He  should  keep  the 
hands  busy,  and  should  see  that  they 
do  what  the  master  has  ordered.  He 
should  not  think  that  he  knows  more 
than  his  master.  The  friends  of  the 
master  should  be  his  friends,  and  he 
should  give  heed  to  those  whom  the 
master  has  recommended  to  him.  He 
should  confine  his  religious  practices 
to  church  on  Sunday,^  or  to  his  own 
house. 

He  should  lend  money  to  no  man 
unbidden  by  the  master,  but  what  the 
master  has  lent  he  should  collect.  He 
should  never  lend  any  seed  reserved 
for  sowing,  feed,  corn,  wine,  or  oil, 
but  he  should  have  relations  with  two 
or  three  others  farms  with  which  he 
can  exchange  things  needed  in  emer- 
gency.   He  should  state  his  accounts 

1  "Compitalibus   in   compito,"   literally   "the   cross 
roads  altar  on  festival  days." 

l35l 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

with  his  master  frequently.  He 
should  not  keep  any  hired  men  or 
day  hands  longer  than  is  necessary. 
He  should  not  sell  anything  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  master,  nor 
should  he  conceal  anything  from  the 
master.  He  should  not  have  any 
hangers-on,  nor  should  he  consult  any 
soothsayer,  fortune  teller,  necroman- 
cer, or  astrologer.  He  should  not 
spare  seed  in  sowing,  for  that  is  bad 
economy.  He  should  strive  to  be  ex- 
pert in  all  kinds  of  farm  work,  and, 
without  exhausting  himself,  often 
lend  a  hand.  By  so  doing,  he  will 
better  understand  the  point  of  view 
of  his  hands,  and  they  will  work  more 
contentedly;  moreover,  he  will  have 
less  inclination  to  gad,  his  health  will 
be  better,  and  he  will  sleep  more  re- 
freshingly. 

First  up  in  the  morning,  he  should 
be  the  last  to  go  to  bed  at  night;  and 
before  he  does,  he  should  see  that  the 
[36I 


C  a  t  o'  s     Farm     Management 

farm  gates  are  closed,  and  that  each 
of  the  hands  is  in  his  own  bed,  that 
the  stock  have  been  fed.  He  should 
see  that  the  best  of  care  is  taken  of  the 
oxen,  and  should  pay  the  highest 
compliments  to  the  teamsters  who 
keep  their  cattle  in  the  best  condition. 
He  should  see  to  it  that  the  plows  and 
plow  shares  are  kept  in  good  repair. 
Plan  all  the  work  in  ample  time,  for 
so  it  is  with  farm  work,  if  one  thing 
is  done  late,  everything  will  be  late. 
(XXXIX)  When  it  rains  try  to  find 
something  to  do  indoors.  Clean 
up,  rather  than  remain  idle.  Remem- 
ber that  while  work  may  stop,  ex- 
penses still  go  on. 

Of  the  Duties  of  the  Housekeeper 
(CXLlll)  The  overseer  should  be 
responsible  for  the  duties  of  the 
house  keeper.  If  the  master  has 
given  her  to  you  for  a  wife,  you 
should  be  satisfied  with  her,  and  she 

l37l 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

should  respect  you.  Require  that  she 
be  not  given  to  wasteful  habits ;  that 
she  does  not  gossip  with  the  neigh- 
bors and  other  women.  She  should 
not  receive  visitors  either  in  the 
kitchen  or  in  her  own  quarters.  She 
should  not  go  out  to  parties,  nor 
should  she  gad  about.^  She  should 
not  practise  religious  observances, 
nor  should  she  ask  others  to  do  so  for 
her  without  the  permission  of  the 
master  or  the  mistress.  Remember 
that  the  master  practises  religion  for 
the  entire  household.  She  should  be 
neat  in  appearance  and  should  keep 
the  house  swept  and  garnished. 
Every  night  before  she  goes  to  bed 
she  should  see  that  the  hearth  is 
swept  and  clean.  On  the  Kalends, 
the  Ides,  the  Nones,  and  on  all  feast 
days,  she  should  hang  a  garland  over 
the  hearth.     On  those  days  also  she 

1  It  is  evident  that  Cato's  housekeeper  would 
have  welcomed  a  visit  from  Mr.  Roosevelt's  Rural 
Uplift   Commission. 

[38I  . 


C  at  0*  s     Farm     Management 

should  pray  fervently  to  the  house- 
hold gods.  She  should  take  care  that 
she  has  food  cooked  for  you  and  for 
the  hands.  She  should  have  plenty 
of  chickens  and  an  abundance  of 
eggs."^  She  should  diligently  put  up 
all  kinds  of  preserves  every  year. 

Of  the  Hands 

(lvi)  The  following  are  the  cus- 
tomary allowances  for  food:  For 
the  hands,  four  pecks  of  meal  for  the 
winter,  and  four  and  one-half  for  the 
summer.  For  the  overseer,  the  house 
keeper,  the  wagoner,  the  shepherd, 
three  pecks  each.  For  the  slaves, 
four  pounds  of  bread  for  the  winter, 
but  when  they  begin  to  cultivate  the 
vines  this  is  increased  to  five  pounds 
until  the  figs  are  ripe,  then  return  to 
four  pounds. 

^  Cato  is  careful  not  to  undertake  to  say  how 
this  may  be  assured;  another  evidence  of  his  wis- 
dom. 

[39I 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

(lvii)  The  sum  of  the  wine  al- 
lowed for  each  hand  per  annum  is 
eight  quadrantals,  or  Amphora,  but 
add  in  the  proportion  as  they  do 
work.  Ten  quadrantals  per  annum 
is  not  too  much  to  allow  them  to 
drink. 

(lviii)  Save  the  wind  fall  olives 
as  much  as  possible  as  relishes 
for  the  hands.  Later  set  aside  such 
of  the  ripe  olives  as  will  make  the 
least  oil.  Be  careful  to  make  them 
go  as  far  as  possible.  When  the 
olives  are  all  eaten,  give  them  fish 
pickles  and  vinegar.  One  peck  of 
salt  per  annum  is  enough  for  each 
hand. 

(lix)  Allow  each  hand  a  smock 
and  a  cloak  every  other  year.  As  of- 
ten as  you  give  out  a  smock  or  cloak 
to  any  one  take  up  the  old  one,  so  that 
caps  can  be  made  out  of  it.  A  pair 
of  heavy  wooden  shoes  should  be 
allowed  every  other  year.^ 
[40] 


I 


C  a  t  o'  s     Farm     Management 

Of  Draining 

(XLIII)  If  the  land  is  wet,  it 
should  be  drained  with  trough 
shaped  ditches  dug  three  feet  wide 
at  the  surface  and  one  foot  at  the  bot- 
tom and  four  feet  deep.  Blind  these 
ditches  with  rock.  If  you  have  no 
rock  then  fill  them  with  green  wil- 
low poles  braced  crosswise.  If  you 
have  no  poles,  fill  then  with  faggots. 
Then  dig  lateral  trenches  three  feet 
deep  and  four  feet  wide  in  such  way 
that  the  water  will  flow  from  the 
trenches  into  the  ditches. 

(CLV)  In  the  winter  surface 
water  should  be  drained  off  the 
fields.  On  hillsides  courses  should  be 
kept  clear  for  the  water  to  flow  off. 
During  the  rainy  season  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Autumn  is  the  greatest  risk 
from  water.  When  it  begins  to  rain 
all  the  hands  should  go  out  with 
picks  and  shovels  and  clear  out  the 
drains  so  that  the  water  may  flow  off 
[41] 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

into  the  roads,  and  the  crops  be  pro- 
tected. 

Of  Preparing  the  Seed  Bed 

(lxi)  What  is  the  first  princi- 
ple of  good  agriculture?  To  plow 
welL  What  is  the  second?  To  plow 
again;  and  the  third  is  to  manure. 
When  you  plow  corn  land,  plow  well 
and  in  good  weather,  lest  you  turn  a 
cloddy  furrow.  The  other  things  of 
good  agriculture  are  to  sow  good 
seed^  plentifully,  to  thin  the  young 
sprouts,  and  to  hill  up  the  roots  with 
earth. 

(v)  Never  plow  rotten  land^ 
nor  drive  flocks  or  carts  across  it. 

1  Seed  selection,  which  is  now  preached  so  earn- 
estly by  the  Agricultural  Department  of  the  United 
States  as  one  of  the  things  necessary  to  increase  the 
yield  of  wheat  and  corn,  has  ever  been  good  prac- 
tice. Virgil  (Georgic  I,  197)  mentions  it:  "I  have 
seen  those  seeds  on  whose  selection  much  time  and 
labour  had  been  spent,  nevertheless  degenerate  if 
men  did  not  every  year  rigorously  separate  by  hand 
all  the  largest  specimens." 

2  Pliny  (H.  N.  XVII,  3)  undertakes  with  more 
rhetoric  than  conviction  to  explain  this  passage: 

"Cato  briefly,  and  in  his  peculiar  manner,  charac- 

[42] 


C  a  t  o'  s     Farm     M  a  n  a  g  e  7n  e  n  t 

If  care  is  not  taken  about  this,  the 
land  so  abused  will  be  barren  for 
three  years. 

terizes  the  defects  that  exist  in  the  various  soils. 
'Take  care,'  he  says,  'where  the  earth  is  rotten  not  to 
shake  it  either  with  carts  or  by  driving  cattle  over 
it.'  Now  what  are  we  to  suppose  that  this  term  'rot- 
ten' means  as  applied  to  a  soil,  about  which  he  is  so 
vastly  apprehensive  as  to  almost  forbid  our  setting 
foot  upon  it?  Let  us  only  form  a  comparison  by 
thinking  what  it  is  that  constitutes  rottenness  in 
wood  and  we  shall  find  that  the  faults  which  are 
held  by  him  in  such  aversion  are  the  being  arid,  full 
of  holes,  rough,  white,  mouldly,  worm  eaten,  in  fact 
just  like  pumice  stone:  and  thus  has  Cato  said  more 
in  a  single  word  than  we  could  have  possibly  found 
means  to  express  in  a  description  however  long." 

One  is  tempted  to  extend  this  note  to  include 
Pliny's  observations  upon  the  tests  of  good  soil  if 
only  for  the  sake  of  his  description  of  one  of  the 
sweetest  sensations  of  the  farmer  every  where,  the 
aroma  of  new  ploughed  fertile  land: — 

"We  may  in  this  place  appropriately  make  men- 
tion of  an  opinion  that  has  been  pronounced  by  an 
Italian  writer  also  with  reference  to  a  matter  of 
luxury.  Cicero,  that  other  luminary  of  literature, 
has  made  the  following  remark:  "Those  unguents 
which  have  a  taste  of  earth  are  better,"  says  he, 
"than  those  which  smack  of  saflFron,"  it  seeming  to 
him  more  to  the  purpose  to  express  himself  by  the 
word  taste  than  smell.  And  such  is  the  fact  no 
doubt,  that  soil  is  the  best  which  has  the  flavour  of 
a  perfume.  If  the  question  should  be  put  to  us, 
what  is  this  odour  of  the  earth  that  is  held  in  such 
estimation;  our  answer  is  that  it  is  the  same  that 
is  often  to  be  recognized  at  the  moment  of  sunset 
without  the  necessity  even  of  turning  up  the  ground, 
at  the  spots  where  the  extremities  of  the  rainbow 
have  been  observed  to  meet  the  earth:  as  also,  when 

[43I 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

Of  Manure 

(v)  Plan  to  have  a  big  compost 
heap  and  take  the  best  of  care  of  the 
manure.  When  it  is  hauled  out  see 
that  is  well  rotted  and  spread.  The 
Autumn  is  the  time  to  do  this. 

(XXXVll)  You  can  make  manure  of 
litter,  lupine  straw,  chaff,  bean  stalks, 
husks  and  the  leaves  of  ilex  and  of 
oak.^ 

after  long  continued  drought,  the  rain  has  soaked 
the  ground.  Then  it  is  that  the  earth  exhales  the 
divine  odour  that  is  so  peculiarly  its  own,  and  to 
which,  imparted  to  it  by  the  sun,  there  is  no  per- 
fume however  sweet  that  can  possibly  be  compared. 
It  is  this  odour  which  the  earth,  when  turned  up, 
ought  to  emit,  and  which,  when  once  found,  can 
never  deceive  any  person :  and  this  will  be  found  the 
best  criterion  for  judging  of  the  quality  of  the  soil. 
Such,  too,  is  the  odour  that  is  usually  perceived  in 
land  newly  cleared  when  an  ancient  forest  has  been 
just  cut  down;  its  excellence  is  a  thing  that  is  uni- 
versally admitted." 

1  The  ancients  fully  appreciated  the  importance  of 
manure  in  any  conservative  system  of  agriculture. 
The  Romans  indeed  sacrificed  to  Stercuius  as  a  god. 
Says  Pliny   (H.  N.  XVII,  9). 

"In  the  times  of  Homer  even  the  aged  king 
(Odyss.  XXIV,  225)  is  represented  as  thus  enrich- 
ing the  land  by  the  labor  of  his  own  hands. 

"Tradition  reports  that  King  Augeas  was  the  first 
in  Greece  to  make  use  of  manure,  and  that  Hercules 
introduced  the  practice  into  Italy,  which  country  has, 
however,  immortalized  the  name  of  its  King  Ster- 

[44] 


C  a  t  o  '  s     Farm     Management 

(XXX)  Fold  your  sheep  on  the 
land  which  you  are  about  to  seed, 
and  there  feed  them  leaves.' 

cutus,  the  son  of  Faunus,  as  claiming  the  honour 
of  the  invention." 

To  the  wise  farmer  the  myth  of  the  Augean 
stables  is  the  genesis  of  good  agriculture. 

Columella  (II,  13)  justly  says  about  manure. 
"Wherefore  if  it  is,  as  it  would  seem  to  be,  the 
thing  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  farmer,  I  con- 
sider that  it  should  be  studied  with  the  greatest 
care,  especially  since  the  ancient  authors,  while  they 
have  not  altogether  neglected  it,  have  nevertheless 
discussed  it  with  too  little  elaboration."  He  goes 
on  (II,  14)  to  lay  down  rules  about  the  compost 
heap  which  should  be  written  in  letters  of  gold  in 
every  farm  house. 

"I  appreciate  that  there  are  certain  kinds  of  farms 
on  which  it  is  impossible  to  keep  either  live  stock  or 
birds,  yet  even  in  such  places  it  is  a  lazy  farmer 
who  lacks  manure:  for  he  can  collect  leaves,  rubbish 
from  the  hedge  rows,  and  droppings  from  the  high 
ways:  without  giving  offence,  and  indeed  earning 
gratitude,  he  can  cut  ferns  from  his  neighbor's 
land:  and  all  these  things  he  can  mingle  with  the 
sweepings  of  the  courtyard:  he  can  dig  a  pit,  like 
that  we  have  counselled  for  the  protection  of  stable 
manure,  and  there  mix  together  ashes,  sewage,  and 
straw,  and  indeed  every  waste  thing  which  is 
swept  up  on  the  place.  But  it  is  wise  to  bury  a 
piece  of  oak  wood  in  the  midst  of  this  compost,  for 
that  will  prevent  venomous  snakes  from  lurking  in 
it.     This  will  suffice  for  a  farm  without  live  stock." 

One  can  see  in  Flanders  today  the  happy  land 
smiling  its  appreciation  of  farm  management  such 
as  this,  but  what  American  farmer  has  yet  learned 
this  kind  of  conservation  of  his  natural  resources. 

^  The  occupants  of  the  motor  cars  which  now  roll 
so  swiftly  and  so  comfortably  along  the  French  na- 

[45] 


C  a  t  o*  s     Farm     Management 

Of  Soil  Improvement 
(xxxvil)  The  things  which  are 
harmful  to  corn  land  are  to  plow  the 
ground  when  it  is  rotten,  and  to 
plant  chick  peas  which  are  harvested 
with  the  straw  and  are  salt.  Barley, 
fenugreek  and  pulse  all  exhaust  corn 
land,  as  well  as  all  other  things  which 
are  harvested  with  the  straw.  Do 
not  plant  nut  trees  in  the  corn  land. 
On  the  other  hand,  lupines,  field 
beans  and  vetch  manure  corn  land.* 

tional  highway  from  Paris  to  Tours,  through  the/ 
pleasant  pays  de  Beauce,  can  see  this  admirable  and 
economical  method  of  manuring  still  in  practice. 
The  sheep  are  folded  and  fed  at  night,  under  the 
watchful  eye  of  the  shepherd  stretched  at  ease  in 
his  wheeled  cabin,  on  the  land  which  was  ploughed 
the  day  before. 

^  These  of  course  are  all  legumes.  The  intelli- 
gent farmer  today  sits  under  his  shade  tree  and 
meditates  comfortably  upon  the  least  expensive  and 
most  profitable  labor  on  his  farm,  the  countless 
millions  of  beneficent  bacteria  who,  his  willing 
slaves,  are  ceaselessly  at  work  during  hot  weather 
forming  root  tubercles  on  his  legumes,  be  it  clover 
or  cow  peas,  and  so  fixing  for  their  lord  the  free  at- 
mospheric nitrogen  contained  in  the  soil.  As 
Macaulay  would  say,  "every  school  boy  knows"  now 
that  leguminous  root  nodules  are  endotrophic  raycor- 
rhiza, — but  the  Romans  did  not!     Nevertheless  their 

I46I 


C  a  t  o'  s     Farm     Management 

Of  Planting 
(XXXIV)   Wherever    the    land    is 
cold  and  wet,  sow  there  first,  and  last 
of  all  in  the  warmest  places. 

empirical  practice  of  soil  improvement  with  legumes 
was  quite  as  good  as  ours.  Varro  (I,  23)  explains 
it  more  fully  than  Cato: 

"Some  lands  are  best  suited  for  hay,  some  for 
corn,  some  for  wine  and  some  for  oil.  So  also  some 
lands  are  best  suited  for  forage  crops,  among  which 
are  basil,  succotash,  vetch,  alfalfa,  snail  clover, 
lupines.  All  things  should  not  be  sown  in  rich 
land,  nor  should  thin  land  be  left  unsown.  For  it  is 
better  to  sow  in  thin  land  those  things  which  do  not 
require  much  nourishment,  such  as  snail  clover  and 
the  legumes,  except  always  chick  pea  (for  this  is  a 
legume  as  are  the  other  plants  which  are  not 
reaped  but  from  which  the  grain  is  plucked) 
because  those  things  which  it  is  the  custom  to  pluck 
{legere)  are  called  legumes.  In  rich  land 
should  be  sown  those  things  which  require  much 
nourishment,  such  as  cabbage,  corn,  wheat  and  flax. 
Certain  plants  are  cultivated  not  so  much  for  their 
immediate  yield  of  grain,  as  with  forethought  for  the 
coming  year,  because  cut  and  left  lying  they  improve 
the  land.  So  if  land  is  too  thin  it  is  the  practice  to 
plow  in,  for  manure,  lupines  not  yet  podded,  and 
likewise  the  field  bean,  if  it  has  not  yet  ripened  so 
that  it  is  fitting  to  harvest  the  beans." 

Columella  (II,  13),  and  after  him  Palladius  (I, 
6),  advises  that  legumes  be  plowed  in  green  and  not 
merely  as  dry  straw:  he  insists  further  that  if  the 
hay  is  saved  the  stubble  of  legumes  should  be 
promptly  plowed,  for  he  says  the  roots  will  evaporate 
their  own  moisture  and  continue  to  pump  the  land 
of  its  fertility  unless  they  are  at  once  turned  over. 

If  the  Romans  followed  this  wise  advice  they  were 
better  farmers  than  most  of  us  today,  for  we  are 

[47] 


C  a  t  o  '  s     Farm     Management 

(vi)  Where  the  soil  is  rich  and 
fertile,  without  shade,  there  the  corn 
land  ought  to  be.     Where  the  land 

usually  content  to  let  the  stubble  dry  out  before  plow- 
ing. 

The  Romans  were  careful  also  about  rotation  of 
crops.  Virgil  (Georgics  I,  82)  expresses  the  advice, 
"Thus,  too,  your  land  will  be  refreshed  by  changing 
the  crops,  and  in  the  meantime  there  is  not  the 
unproductiveness  of  untilled   land." 

Liming  as  an  amendment  of  the  soil  and  to  correct 
the  acidity  of  old  corn  land,  was  apparently  not 
practiced  by  the  Romans  in  Cato's  time,  but  it  would 
have  been  most  useful  then  as  now  in  connection 
with  the  ploughing  in  of  green  legumes.  The 
Romans,  of  course,  had  lime  in  plenty.  Cato 
(XXXVIII),  and  after  him  Palladius  (I,  10),  tells 
how  to  burn  limestone,  but  this  was  for  masonry 
work.  Pliny  (H.  N,  XVII,  4)  says  that  liming  for 
soil  improvement  was  known  among  the  Transalpine 
Gauls:  "The  Aedui  and  the  Pictores  have  rendered 
their  lands  remarkably  fertile  by  the  aid  of  lime 
stone,  which  is  also  found  to  be  particularly  bene- 
ficial to  the  olive  and  the  vine." 

The  Romans  did  not  have  the  fight  against  sour 
land  which  is  the  heritage  of  the  modern  farmer 
after  years  of  continuous  application  to  his  land  of 
phosphoric  and  sulphuric  acid  in  the  form  of  mineral 
fertilizers.  What  sour  land  the  Romans  had  they 
corrected  with  humus  making  barnyard  manure,  or 
the  rich  compost  which  Cato  recommends.  They  had, 
however,  a  test  for  sourness  of  land  which  is  still 
practiced  even  where  the  convenient  litmus  paper  is 
available.  Virgil  (Georgics  II,  241)  gives  the  form- 
ula: "Fill  a  basket  with  soil,  and  strain  fresh  water 
through  it.  The  taste  of  water  strained  through  sour 
soil  will  twist  awry  the  taster's  face." 


I48I 


C  a  t  o*  s     Farm     Management 

lies  low,  plant  rape,  millet,  and  panic 
grass. 

Of  Forage  Crops 

(Vlll)  If  you  have  a  water 
meadow  you  will  not  want  forage, 
but  if  not  then  sow  an  upland 
meadow,  so  that  hay  may  not  be 
lacking. 

(liii)  Save  your  hay  when  the 
times  comes,  and  beware  lest  you 
mow  too  late.  Mow  before  the  seed 
is  ripe.  House  the  best  hay  by  itself, 
so  that  you  may  feed  it  to  the  draft 
cattle  during  the  spring  plowing,  be- 
fore the  clover  is  mature. 

(xxvil)  Sow,  for  feed  for  the 
cattle,  clover,  vetch,  fenugreek,  field 
beans  and  pulse.  Sow  these  crops  a 
second  and  a  third  time.^ 

1  Alfalfa  was  one  of  the  standbys  of  ancient  agri- 
culture, as  Arthur  Young  found  it  to  be  in  France  in 
the  XVIII  Century,  and  as  it  is  all  over  South- 
ern Europe  today.  Cato  does  not  himself  mention 
alfalfa,  but  according  to  Pliny  it  was  introduced 
into  Italy  from  Greece,  whence  it  had  been  brought 
from  Asia,  during  the  Persian  wars,  and  so  derived 

[49I 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

Of  Pastures 
(l)   Manure  the  pastures  in  early, 
spring   in    the    dark   of   the   moon, 

its  Roman  name  Medica.  Varro  (I,  42)  praises  it, 
and  Columella  calls  it  the  best  of  the  legumes  and 
discusses  its  cultivation  in  interesting  detail.  Because 
this  plant  in  comparatively  new  in  America  and 
because  so  many  farmers  are  balked  by  the  difficulty 
of  getting  a  stand  of  it,  it  is  important  to  realize 
the  pains  which  the  Romans  took  with  the  seed  bed, 
for  it  is  on  this  point  that  most  American  farmers 
fail.    Says  Columella  (II,  lo)  : 

"But  of  all  the  legumes,  alfalfa  is  the  best,  be- 
cause, when  once  it  is  sown,  it  lasts  ten  years:  be- 
cause it  can  be  mowed  four  times,  and  even  six 
times,  a  year:  because  it  improves  the  soil:  because 
all  lean  cattle  grow  fat  by  feeding  upon  it:  because 
it  is  a  remedy  for  sick  beasts:  because  a  jugerum 
(two-thirds  of  an  acre)  of  it  will  feed  three  horses 
plentifully  for  a  year.  We  will  teach  you  the  man- 
ner of  cultivating  it,  as  follows:  The  land  which 
you  wish  to  set  in  alfalfa  the  following  spring 
should  be  broken  up  about  the  Kalends  of  October, 
so  that  it  may  mellow  through  the  entire  winter. 
About  the  Kalends  of  February  harrow  it  thor- 
oughly, remove  all  the  stones  and  break  up  the  clods. 
Later,  about  the  month  of  March,  harrow  it  for  the 
third  time.  When  you  have  so  got  the  land  in 
good  order,  lay  it  off  after  the  manner  of  a  garden, 
in  beds  ten  feet  wide  and  fifty  feet  long,  so  that  it 
may  be  possible  to  let  in  water  by  the  paths,  and 
access  on  every  side  may  be  had  by  the  weeders. 
Then  cover  the  beds  with  well  rotted  manure.  At 
last,  about  the  end  of  April,  sow  plentifully  so  that 
a  single  measure  (cyanthus)  of  seed  will  cover  a 
space  ten  feet  long  and  five  wide.  When  you  have 
done  this  brush  in  the  seed  with  wooden  rakes:  this 
is  most  important  for  otherwise  the  sprouts  will  be 
withered  by  the  sun.    After  the  sowing  no  iron  tool 

[50] 


C  at  o'  s     Farm     Management 

when  the  west  wind  begins  to  blow. 
rl)  When  you  close  your  pastures  (to  the 
\  stock)  clean  them  and  root  out  all 
'\      weeds/ 

"^p  should   touch   the   beds:  but,   as   I   have   said,   they 

'l"  should  be  cultivated  with  wooden  rakes,  and  in  the 

'•  same  manner  they  should  be  weeded  so  that  no  for- 

^^'  ij  eign  grass  can  choke  out  the  young  alfalfa.     The 

'"i  I  first  cutting  should  be   late,  when  the  seed  begins 

'"  '  to  fall:  afterwards,  when  it  is  well  rooted,  you  can 
cut  it  as  young  as  you  wish  to  feed  to  the  stock. 

^'"  Feed  it  at  first  sparingly,  until  the  stock  become  ac- 

'^  customed   to   it,   for   it  causes   bloat   and   excess   of 

■'^  blood.     After  cutting,   irrigate  the  beds  frequently, 

'^'  jj  and    after    a    few    days,    when    the    roots   begin    to 

"^  jj  sprout,  weed  out  all  other  kinds  of  grass.   Cultivated 

™  in  this  way  alfalfa  can  be  mowed  six  times  a  year, 

''  and  it  will  last  for  ten  years." 


1  As  we  have  seen,  Cato  recommended  chiefly  a 
system  of  intensive  farming  with  the  vine  and  the 
olive  as  staples.  On  such  a  farm  few  live  stock 
were  kept  and  they  were  largely  fed  in  the  barnyard, 
so  that  the  question  of  pastures  was  of  relatively 
small  importance.  In  Varro's  time  the  feeding  of 
large  flocks  of  cattle  and  sheep  had  become  of  great 
importance,  and  with  this  in  mind  Varro  (I,  7) 
makes  one  of  his  society  of  country  gentlemen  reply 
to  a  quotation  of  Cato's  scheme  of  laying  out  a 
farm  {ante  p.  27)  : 

"I  know  he  wrote  that  but  every  one  does  not 
agree  with  him.  There  are  some  who  put  a  good 
pasture  first,  and  I  am  among  them.  Our  ancestors 
were  wont  to  call  them  not  prata,  as  we  do,  but 
farata  (because  they  are  always  ready  for  use). 
The  aedile  Caesar  Vopiscus,  in  pleading  a  cause  be- 
fore the  censors,  once  said  that  the  prairie  of  Rosea 

[51] 


Cato's     Farm     Management 

Of  Feeding  Live  Stock 
(xxx)   As  long  as  they  are  avail- 
able, feed  green  leaves  of  elm,  pop- 
lar, oak  and  fig  to  your  cattle  and 
sheep. 

(v)  Store  leaves,  also,  to  be  fed 
to  the  sheep  before  they  have 
withered.^ 

(xxx)  Take  the  best  of  care  of 
your  dry  fodder,  which  you  house 
for  the  winter,  and  remember  always 
how  long  the  winter  may  last. 

was  the  nurse  of  Italy,  because  if  one  left  his  survey- 
ing instruments  there  on  the  ground  over  night  they 
were  lost  next  day  in  the  growth  of  grass." 

This  sounds  like  the  boast  of  the  modern  proprie- 
tor of  an  old  blue  grass  sod  in  Northern  Virginia  or 
Kentucky. 

But  Cato  was  fully  alive  to  the  opportunity  af- 
forded by  broad  pastures  of  natural  grass  in  an 
entirely  different  system  of  farming.  Pliny  (N.  H. 
XVIII,  7)  tells  that  Cato  on  being  asked  what  was 
the  most  certain  source  of  profit  in  farming,  re- 
plied: "Good  pasture  land,"  and  second,  "Pretty 
good  pasture  land."  Columella  (VI,  1)  translates 
this  "feeding  cattle,"  but  the  point  of  the  anecdote 
is  the  same. 

1  Was  this  ensilage?  The  ancients  had  their  silo 
pits,  but  they  used  them  chiefly  as  granaries,  and  as 
such  they  are  described,  by  Varro  (I,  57,  63),  by 
Columella  (I,  6),  and  by  Pliny  (XVIII,  30,  73). 

[52I 


C  a  t  o*  s     Farm     Management 

(iv)  Be  sure  you  have  well  con- 
structed stables  furnished  with  sub- 
stantial stalls  and  equipped  with  lat- 
ticed feed  racks.  The  intervals 
between  the  bars  of  the  racks  should 
be  one  foot.  If  you  build  them  in 
this  way,  the  cattle  will  not  waste 
their  food. 

(liv)  This  is  the  way  that  proven- 
der should  be  prepared  and  fed: 
When  the  seeding  is  finished,  gather 
mast  and  soak  it  in  water.  Feed  a 
measure  of  it  every  day  to  each  steer; 
or  if  they  have  not  been  worked  it 
will  be  sufficient  to  let  them  pasture 
the  mast  beds.  Another  good  feed  is 
a  measure  of  grape  husks  which  you 
shall  have  preserved  in  jars.  By  day 
turn  the  cattle  out  and  at  night  feed 
twenty-five  pounds  of  hay  to  each 
steer.  If  hay  is  short,  feed  the  leaves 
of  the  ilex  and  ivy.  Stack  the  straw 
of  wheat,  barley,  beans,  vetch  and 
lupine,  indeed  all  the  grain  straws, 

153] 


C  a  t  0  ^  s     Farm     Management 

but  pick  out  and  house  the  best  of  it. 
Scatter  your  straw  with  salt  and  you 
can  then  feed  it  in  place  of  hay. 
When  in  the  spring  you  begin  to  feed 
(more  heavily  to  prepare  for  work), 
feed  a  measure  of  mast  or  of  grape 
husks,  or  a  measure  of  ground  lu- 
pines, and  fifteen  pounds  of  hay. 
When  the  clover  is  ripe,  feed  that 
first.  Gather  it  by  hand  so  that  it 
will  bloom  a  second  time,  for  what 
you  harvest  with  the  sickle  blooms 
no  more.  Feed  clover  until  it  is  dry, 
then  feed  vetch  and  then  panic  grass, 
and  after  the  panic  grass  feed  elm 
leaves.  If  you  have  poplar,  mix  that 
with  the  elm  so  that  the  elm  may  last 
the  longer.  If  you  have  no  elm  feed 
oak  and  ^g  leaves. 

Nothing  is  more  profitable  than  to 
take  good  care  of  your  cattle. 

Cattle  should  not  be  put  out  to 
graze  except  in  winter  when  they  are 
not  worked;  for  when  they  eat  green 

I54l 


C  a  t  o*  s     Farm     M  a  n  a  g  e  7Ji  e  n  t 

Stuff  they  expect  it  all  the  time,  and 
it  is  then  necessary  to  muzzle  them 
while  they  plow. 

Of  the  Care  of  Live  Stock 
(v)  The  flocks  and  herds  should 
be  well  supplied  with  litter  and  their 
feet  kept  clean.  If  litter  is  short, 
haul  in  oak  leaves,  they  will  serve  as 
bedding  for  sheep  and  cattle.  Be- 
ware of  scab  among  the  sheep  and 
cattle.  This  comes  from  hunger  and 
exposure  to  rain. 

(lxxii)  To  prevent  the  oxen  from 
wearing  down  their  hoofs,  anoint  the 
bottom  of  the  hoof  with  liquid  pep- 
per before  driving  them  on  the  high- 
road. 

(lxxiii)  Take  care  that  during 
the  summer  the  cattle  drink  only 
sweet  and  fresh  water.  Their  health 
depends  on  it. 

(XCVI)   To    prevent    scab    among 
sheep,  make  a  mixture  of  equal  parts 
[55] 


Cato*s     Farm     Management 

of  well  strained  amurca,^  of  water 
in  which  lupine  has  been  steeped,  and 
of  lees  of  good  wine.  After  shearing, 
anoint  all  the  flock  with  this  mixture, 
and  let  them  sweat  profusely  for  two 
or  three  days.  Then  dip  them  in  the 
sea.  If  you  have  no  sea  water,  make 
salt  water  and  dip  then  in  that.  If 
you  will  do  this  they  will  suffer  no 
scab,  they  will  have  more  and  better 
wool  and  they  will  not  be  molested 
by  ticks. 

(lxxi)  If  an  ox  begins  to  sicken, 
give  him  without  delay  a  raw 
hen's  tgg  and  make  him  swallow  it 
whole.  The  next  day  make  him 
drink  from  a  wooden  bowl  a  measure 
of  wine  in  which  has  been  scraped 
the  head  of  an  onion.     Both  the  ox 

^  Amurca  was  the  dregs  of  olive  oil.  Cato  rec- 
ommends its  use  for  many  purposes  in  the  economy 
of  the  farm,  for  a  moth  proof  (XCVIII),  as  a  relish 
for  cattle  (CIII),  as  a  fertilizer  (CXXX),  and  as 
an  anointment  for  the  threshing  floor  to  kill  weevil 
(XCI). 

[56] 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

and  his  attendant  should  do  these 
things  fasting  and  standing  upright. 

(Cll)  If  a  serpent  shall  bite  an 
ox,  or  any  other  quadruped,  take  a 
cup  of  that  extract  of  fennel,  which 
the  physicians  call  smyrnean,  and 
mix  it  with  a  measure  of  old  wine. 
Inject  this  through  his  nostrils  and 
at  the  same  time  poultice  the  wound 
with  hogs'  dung.^  You  can  treat  a 
man  the  same  way. 

(CLX)  If  a  bone  is  dislocated  it 
can  be  made  sound  by  this  incanta- 
tion. Take  a  green  reed  four  or  five 
feet  long,  cut  it  in  the  middle  and  let 
two  men  hold  the  pieces  against  your 
hips.    Begin  then  to  chant  as  follows : 

In  Alto.  S.  F,  Motas 

Vaeta, 
Daries  Dardaries  Astataries  Dis- 

sunapiter, 

and  continue  until  the  free  ends  of 

1  There  is  a  similar  remedy  for  scratches  in  horses, 
which  is  traditional  in  the  cavalry  service  today,  and 
is  extraordinarily  efficacious. 

157] 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

the  reed  are  brought  slowly  together 
in  front  of  you.  Meanwhile,  wave  a 
knife  above  the  reeds,  and  when  they 
come  together  and  one  touches  the 
other,  seize  them  in  your  hand  and 
cut  them  right  and  left.  These  pieces 
of  reed  bound  upon  a  dislocated  or 
fractured  bone  will  cure  it. 

But  every  day  repeat  the  incanta- 
tion, or  in  place  of  it  this  one: 

Huat  Hanat  Huat 
1st  a  Pista  Sista 
Domiabo  Damnaustra  ^ 

Of  Curing  Hams 
(CLXll)  This  is  the  way  to  cure 
hams  in  jars  or  tubs :  When  you  have 
bought  your  hams  trim  off  the  hocks. 
Take  a  half  peck  (semodius)  of 
ground  Roman  salt  for  each  ham. 

1  These  examples  will  serve  to  illustrate  how  far 
Cato's  veterinary  science  was  behind  his  agricul- 
ture, and  what  a  curious  confusion  of  native  good 
sense  and  traditional  superstition  there  was  in  his 
method  of  caring  for  his  live  stock.  On  questions  of 
preventing  malady  he  had  the  wisdom  of  experience, 
but  malady  once  arrived  he  was  a  simple  pagan. 

[58] 


C  a  t  o  '  s     Farm     Management 

Cover  the  bottom  of  the  jar  or  tub 
with  salt  and  put  in  a  ham,  skin 
down.  Cover  the  whole  with  salt  and 
put  another  ham  on  top,  and  cover 
this  in  the  same  manner.  Be  careful 
that  meat  does  not  touch  meat.  So 
proceed,  and  when  you  have  packed 
all  the  hams,  cover  the  top  with  salt 
so  that  no  meat  can  be  seen,  and 
smooth  it  out  even.  When  the  hams 
have  been  in  salt  five  days,  take  them 
all  out  with  the  salt  and  repack  them, 
putting  those  which  were  on  top  at 
the  bottom.  Cover  them  in  the  same 
way  with  salt  and  press  them  down. 

After  the  twelfth  day  remove  the 
hams  finally,  brush  off  the  salt  and 
hang  them  for  two  days  in  the  wind. 
On  the  third  day  wipe  them  off  clean 
with  a  sponge  and  rub  them  with 
(olive)  oil.  Then  hang  them  in 
smoke  for  two  days,  and  on  the  third 
day  rub  them  with  a  mixture  of 
(olive)  oil  and  vinegar. 

[59l 


Cato^s     Farm     Management 

Then  hang  them  in  the  meat  house, 
and  neither  bats  nor  worms  will 
touch  them/ 

1  Cato  gives  many  recipes  of  household  as  well  as 
agricultural  economy.  This  one  for  curing  hams  is 
selected  because  of  its  intrinsic  interest  and  for  com- 
parison with  the  following  traditional  formula  as 
practiced  in  Virginia: 

A  VIRGINIA  RECIPE  FOR  CURING  HAMS 
"Rub  each  ham  separately  with  5^  teaspoonful  of 
saltpetre  (use  a  small  spoon)  ;  then  rub  each  ham 
with  a  large  tablespoonful  of  best  black  pepper; 
then  rub  each  ham  with  a  gill  of  molasses  (black 
strap  is  best). 

Then  for  i,ooo  lbs.  of  ham  take 

3-^  pecks  of  coarse  salt, 
2Y2  lbs.   of   saltpetre, 

2       qts.  hickory  ashes, 

2      qts.  molasses, 

2  teacupfuls  of  red  pepper. 
Mix  all  together  on  the  salting  table.  Then  rub 
each  ham  with  this  mixture,  and,  in  packing,  spread 
some  of  it  on  each  layer  of  ham.  Use  no  more  salt 
than  has  been  mixed.  Pack  skin  down  and  let 
stand  for  five  weeks,  then  hang  in  the  smoke  house 
for  five  or  six  weeks,  and  smoke  in  damp  weather. 
Use  hickory  wood  for  smoking  if  you  can  possibly 
get  it." 


I60I 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R,  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY,  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


«5 


14  DAY  USE 


U  C    BEHKt  Lf  V  LIHHAHIf  S 


CDBM^MblDM 


J 


"sn^'mm^^^ 


